Machine for marking mail-matter



(No Model.)

' E. N. ETHRIDGE.

MACHINE POR MARKING MAIL'MATTBR. No. 441,832. PatentedDec. 2,1890.

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WITNEESEE. .Im/ENTER UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK N. ETI-IRIDGE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN POSTAL MACHINES COMPANY, OF MAINE.

MACHINE FOR MARKING MAIL-MATTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 441,832, dated December 2, 1890.

Application led August 28,18%. Serial No. 363,241. (No model.)

.To all whom t may concern: i

Be it known that I, FRANK N. ETHRIDGE, of Boston, in the county of Suolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Marking Mail-Matter, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to postmarking-machines in which lett-ers, cards, and other mailmatter are fed endwise through the machine by a suitable feeding device, such as an endless belt, and are delivered by said belt to a packing device, whereby the letters are arrested and moved laterally or sidewise and accumulated on a suitable table or support, each piece of mail-matter being marked bya suitable printing device while it is being moved forward endwise by the feeding device.

The present invention relates wholly to the means for arresting the endwise forward motion imparted by said belt to the letters, dac.,

. and packing them upon a bed or table by a lateral or sidewise movement.

The object of the invention is to provide a 'simple and effective packing device or attachment to pack the pieces of mail-matter after they have been marked; and it consists in the improvements which l will now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying` drawings,forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a top view of my improved packing device and a portion of the postmarking-machine. Fig. 2 represents a section on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

In the drawings, a represents the feedingbelt, which runs on suitable supporting-pulleys, so that its sides are substantially vertical, the lower edge of the belt having a substantially horizontal flange a', which supports the lower edges of the letters :n and other pieces of mailmatter, said pieces being dropped edgewise upon the belt by my improved delivering mechanism and moved forward endwise to the packing mechanism. During the forward movement imparted to the letters by the feeding-belt they are presented to the rotary printing-wheel Z7, which prints the desired marks on each letter as it is carried forward by the belt.

The construction and arrangement of the feeding-belt and of the printing devices form no part of my invention, and my improvements, hereinafter described, may be used with any suitable means for feeding the letters forward in an endwise direction and printing or marking them while they are being thus carried forward. i

My improved letter-packing device or attachment comprises a bed or table i, which is preferably slightly inclined for a purpose hereinafter set forth, its forward edge being thehigher: Said table may be attached in any suitable way to the frame of the machine. The table r is arranged to receive the letters, that are fed forward endwise by the feedingbelt.

Below the upper surface of the table r is a shaft s, which extends crosswise of the path in which the letters are `moved upon the table by the feeding-belt of the machine, the upper surface of said shaft being preferably about iush with the upper surface of the table. On the shaft s is formed a spiral blade t of such width that the highest portions of its convolutions project through an opening u, in the table o' above the upper surface thereof, the space between said convolutions being of suicient width to receive a letter or other piece of mail-matter when the same stands edgewise or vertically on the table. The blade t is of varying width, its convolutions being comparatively narrow at that portion of the shaft upon which the letters are delivered by the feeding device and gradually increased in width from said point, so that at the distance of a few convolutions from the said point the blade is of such width that its sides afford substantial support for a letter and hold it on edge without permitting it to tip sidewise. The width of the blade decreases from about the middle of its length to the outer end of the shaft s, the convolutions being successively smaller as they approach the outer end of the shaft, as shown. One object of this peculiar form of the blade is as follows: The blade, being narrower at its ends than at its middle portion, enables the aperture d, that is formed in the table fr for the reception of the spiral blade, to be made of corresponding for1n-viz., narrowest ICO at its ends and of gradually increasing width from its ends toward its central portion. One of the narrow ends of the opening is located at the point where the letters are delivered upon the shaft, so that there is less liability of the forward end of the letter falling while it is moving across the shaft and striking the rear side of the aperture at its lower corner. In case, however, the forward lower corner of a letter is depressed and strikes the rear side of the opening d, as is sometimes the case when the envelope is short and practically square, soV that the center of gravity of the letter is between the shaft and the rear side of the aperture d, the oblique portion 2 3 of said rear side will cause the letter, whose end bears against it, to move backwardly or in a direction opposite that in which the letter was delivered to the conveyer while theletter is being moved sidewise by the conveyer until the center of gravity is at the other side ofthe shaft and the depressed end of the letter rises above the rear edge of the aperture, whereupon the friction exerted on the letter by the sides of the rotating` convolutions of the blade causes the letter to move forward endwise against the Wall or stop u at the rear edge of the table.

Another object of the described form of the blade is to prevent the friction of the blade -on the letters from retarding their progress, or, in other words, checking the momentum which they require from the feeding-belt. The blade is so narrow at the point Where the letters are delivered by the belt thaiu the sides of its convolutions at this point offer but little resistance to the endwise movement of the letters, said convolutions simplyengaging the lower edges of the letters sufficiently to feed them laterally without bearing to any great extent on the sides of the letters until after the letters have crossed the aperture d.

c represents a vertical wall or {iange at one end of the table arranged to guide the letters as they are delivered by the belt, said wall extending acrossl the shaft s, as shown, and preventing the letters from falling outwardly. The wall n has a curved extension fu at one end,which acts to stop the letters so gradually that they cannot rebound, as they might dovif allowed to strike squarely on a surface at' right angles to the direction of their endwise movement.

The wall or stop u is a continuation of the curved extension 4o', as shown in Fig. 1. l prefer to make the forward edge of the table r-viz.,.that edge which is nearest the feeding-belt-somewhat higher than its rear edge, the top of the bed having a downward inclination from the front to the rear edge, as shown in Fig. 2. This form reduces to a minimum the liability of the forward lower corner of the letter striking the rear edge of the aperture d during the endwise movement of the letter across the table, the inclination of the table compensating for the tendency of the forward end of the letter to gravitate downwardly during its endwise movement across the table.

I claim- 1. In a machine for marking mail-matter, the combination of a spiral blade of greater width'or diameter at its center than at its ends, means for rotating said blade, and a table arranged to support letters for the action of said blade, as set forth.

2. In a machine for marking mail-matter, the improved packing device composed of a spiral blade of greater width or diameter at its center than at its ends, combined with a table having an aperture receiving said conveyer and made wider at its central portion than at its ends, and means for rotating said blade, as set forth.

3. The combination of the spiral conveyer, a letter-feeding device arranged to project pieces of mail-matter across the conveyer, and the table having a vertical wall arranged at right angles tothe axis of the conveyer to guide the letters in their endwise movement across the conveyer, anda curved extension of said wall to prevent the letters from rebounding, as set forth.

4. The combination of the spiral conveyer, the inclined table having its forward portion higher than its rear portion, and a letter-feeding device arranged to project pieces of m-ailmatter endwise across the conveyer, as set forth.

In testimony whereof l have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 18th day of August, A. D. 1890.

FRANK N. ETHRIDGE.

Vitnesses:

EWING YV. HAMLEN, ARTHUR W. CRossLEY.

lIOC 

